A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

''Cussler is hard to beat'' Daily Mail

The thrilling first Dirk Pitt classic from multi-million-copy king of the adventure novel, Clive Cussler.

Fully armed and with all hands on board, the nuclear submarine Starbuck sailed into the calm Pacific Ocean for sea trials - and vanished. No wreckage, no signals, no survivors: nothing . . . until ace maritime troubleshooter Dirk Pitt finds a single, chilling clue in the shark-torn surf off Hawaii - the log of the Starbuck.

''Do not search for us, it can only end in vain . . . '' A crazed journal of madness and death is all that remains. And the Captain''s final, scrawled, fear-crazed note locates the Starbuck''s grave hundreds of miles from her last known position! The search for the Starbuck plunges Dirk Pitt into his most shattering assignment to date - a whirlpool of deep-sea mystery and terror - the Pacific Vortex!

''Clive Cussler is the guy I read'' Tom Clancy

''The Adventure King'' Daily Express